Cannot run Nvidia driver

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gewitty
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Posts: 63
Joined: Tue Apr 14, 2009 11:02 am

Re: Cannot run Nvidia driver

Post by gewitty »

OK. I ran all that lot successfully and then went through the Shim UEFI key management process. The system rebooted and I then ran the hexdump command, which returned this output:

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$ hexdump -Cv /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/char/drm/nvidia.ko | tail -n 5
0128c1f0  bd 17 72 92 6c 22 da 84  f0 ce a3 e7 00 00 02 00  |..r.l"..........|
0128c200  00 00 00 00 00 00 01 94  7e 4d 6f 64 75 6c 65 20  |........~Module |
0128c210  73 69 67 6e 61 74 75 72  65 20 61 70 70 65 6e 64  |signature append|
0128c220  65 64 7e 0a                                       |ed~.|
0128c224
This looks OK, as far as I can tell. inxi -G now returns:

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$ inxi -G
Graphics:  Card: NVIDIA GM107 [GeForce GTX 750 Ti]
           Display Server: x11 (X.Org 1.19.6 )
           drivers: nvidia (unloaded: modesetting,fbdev,vesa,nouveau)
           Resolution: 1920x1080@60.00hz
           OpenGL: renderer: GeForce GTX 750 Ti/PCIe/SSE2
           version: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 390.48
Driver Manager still says I'm using a manually installed driver, but it looks as if the Nvidia driver is now working. As confirmation, I tried running Google Earth, which previously displayed graphics problems, but now works fine.

The last hurdle will be to run Update Manager, which I had previously needed to stop, as whatever it loaded over the past few days caused the graphics to start in safe mode every time. Fortunately, I use Timeshift, so was able to roll back to a working installation. If this still causes problems, I'll let you know, but in the meantime can I say a big thanks for all the time you've given me in sorting this one out. This is an example of one of the big advantages that Linux has over other OS's - code that can be fixed and a community that's willing to help.
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roblm
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Joined: Sun Feb 24, 2013 2:41 pm

Re: Cannot run Nvidia driver

Post by roblm »

gewitty wrote: Driver Manager still says I'm using a manually installed driver, but it looks as if the Nvidia driver is now working.
If you need to remove the Nvidia driver, because you wish to install a newer version or revert back to the nouveau driver, then use this command and reboot: sudo apt purge *nvidia*

When you open Driver Manager, that message should be gone. If it is still seen, then it’s due to some more buggy operation. The file nvidia-graphics-drivers.conf is automatically created during the installation of the Nvidia driver in /etc/modprobe.d, which disables the nouveau driver. That file should be automatically removed when the Nvidia driver is removed, but sometimes it’s not.

First check if the file still exists: ls /etc/modprobe.d

If it does, then use this command to remove it: sudo rm /etc/modprobe.d/nvidia-graphics-drivers.conf

Then update the initial ramdisk and reboot: sudo update initramfs -u; reboot

If the message still remains, then use this command: sudo apt autoremove

gewitty wrote: The last hurdle will be to run Update Manager, which I had previously needed to stop, as whatever it loaded over the past few days caused the graphics to start in safe mode every time.
The package that usually causes that is a kernel update, which can break something on your system and graphics is at the top. After that is a Nvidia driver update and mesa. So save those 3 for last as separate updates. If everything is working correctly on your system, then there really is no need to update the kernel or the Nvidia driver, unless they are security updates. If updating mesa causes a problem, then usually re-installing the Nvidia driver will correct that.
gewitty
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Re: Cannot run Nvidia driver

Post by gewitty »

Got that. Switched off Auto Updates!

Once again, many thanks for the help.
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